Tokunboh Ishmael is a global voice for creating wealth and impact by unlocking the potential of businesses that provide essential goods and services that address the accessibility, affordability, and inclusion needs of underserved markets to drive superior performance and shared prosperity.

She is co-founder and Managing Director of Alitheia Capital, a female-led impact investing private equity firm, a Yale World Fellow, and a member of the inaugural cohort of the Aspen Institute’s Finance Leaders Fellowship.

Tokunboh was a Dragon Panelist on the popular Dragons Den Nigeria TV show and currently sits on several corporate boards. As a dynamic speaker, she shares her over two decades of knowledge on topics including Private Equity and Venture Capital in Africa; ESG and Impacting Investing; Gender Lens Investing; and diversity and Inclusion.

Marlon Nichols is the co-founder and managing general partner at MaC Venture Capital, a seed-stage venture capital firm that invests in visionary founders building the future that the world wants to see. Marlon has an extensive background in technology, private equity, media and entertainment. His unique eye for global and cultural trends, along with shifts in consumer behaviour, has helped him uplift and accelerate entrepreneurs and companies that are on the verge of their breakthrough moment.

Gbemisola Abudu is an accomplished entrepreneur, business leader, luxury marketing expert, and social activist with 17 years of experience developing and building businesses, brands, and human capital in Africa, the Middle East, and North America.

She is the NBA Africa Vice President & Country Head of NBA Nigeria, where she is responsible for leading the NBA’s basketball and business development efforts in Nigeria, including grassroots programming for youth, elite player development, relationships with current and prospective marketing partners, media, and merchandise partners, and social responsibility efforts that elevate the lives of Nigerians through basketball. In her role, she was recently recognized by Sports Illustrated as one of the 100 Most Influential Black Women in Sports in the World.

Ms. Elizabeth Polk is a seasoned global media and technology executive, attorney, and entrepreneur with over 16 years of experience in senior leadership roles. She has influenced key business strategies and managed multiple P&Ls at both privately- and publicly-held companies. Additionally, she co-founded and serves as CEO of a wellness business. 

Ms. Polk is also an attorney at Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole LLP, representing high-profile talent, and CEO of Speir Pilates, a premium wellness business. Previously, she served as Vice President of Business & Legal Affairs at Netflix, Inc., where she played a crucial role in the company’s global expansion and original content strategy. Ms. Polk is recognized in Variety’s “Dealmakers Impact Report” and holds a J.D. from Loyola Law School and a B.A. in Communications from Howard University. She resides in Los Angeles with her husband and three sons.

Kola is the founding partner at the Pan-African early-stage VC fund, Ventures Platform Fund. He is an experienced investor, insightful non-executive director, and company chair who is passionate about supporting the growth of startups. 

He has a proven track record of success in leading investments in over 100 companies across Africa, India, and the US. This includes payment companies like Paystack and healthcare companies like MDaaS. He was also the founder and former CEO of Emerging Platforms, a leading enterprise software provider in West Africa. He brings expertise across various sectors, including venture capital, technology, media, agriculture, infrastructure, publishing, and real estate.

Kola actively participates in mentoring programs such as XL Africa, the World Bank Accelerator, and Google Launchpad Accelerator. He serves on the boards of multiple organizations, including ARM Financial Advisers, Iron Global Markets, and Reliance HMO.

Iyinoluwa “E” Aboyeji, OON is currently the Founding Partner of Future Africa, Africa’s largest seed stage investor which has invested millions of dollars into over a hundred startups across Africa. 

Before that, he co-founded two of Africa’s seven unicorns; Andela and Flutterwave. Iyinoluwa has served his country as the youngest member of Nigeria’s Presidential Council on Industrial Policy and Competitiveness and has been recognized as one of the youngest

recipients of a national award as the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON). He has been

recognized as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a Forbes 30 under 30

honoree amongst other awards and fellowships.

Wiza Jalakasi is an international business development expert specialising in the setup and operations of high-performance technology startups across Africa, often sharing moments from his journey on Twitter @wizaj. His career experience spans 13 years and 16 African countries, founding and building tech startups across industry verticals in the B2B and B2C space.

Wiza is currently the Director of Africa Market Development at Ebanx, a Brazilian headquartered global payments processor serving over 1,000 merchants to reach over a billion customers in 29 countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Before joining Ebanx, Wiza previously served as Vice President of Global Merchant Business at Chipper Cash – a cross-border mobile money service with over 5 million users.

He is also a Venture Partner at RaliCap, a global collective venture fund combining capital, operating expertise and networks into a collaborative investment community targeting emerging markets. Wiza also serves as the Africa host for ThisWeekInFintech.com Fintech Happy Hours, bringing together thousands of fintech professionals at memorable events in Lagos, Nairobi, Cape Town and other cities.

June Angelides has over 13 years of experience working across venture debt, venture capital, and entrepreneurship.  She began her career at Silicon Valley Bank, then launched her startup which she ran for 3 years before joining the investing world. She invests in Europe and Africa across all sectors. Some of her investments include Chowdeck, Craydel, Raenest and CDCare.

Sunil Natraj joined Jumia in 2022 with extensive experience in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Jumia, he briefly handled the Jumia Express logistics business as VP of Sales and Marketing before transitioning to become the CEO of Jumia Ghana.

Ghana saw stellar growth under his leadership with revenues growing almost 100% YoY in USD.  He has taken Jumia to all parts of Ghana and Jumia Ghana now has a higher share of orders coming in from upcountry rather than from the capital city.

He had been based in Ghana for over 10 years, where he worked for large food-producing multinationals with operations in Europe and Africa.  Sunil is an IT Engineer and holds an MBA from The Indian Institute of Management

Calcutta.

Kenfield is the CEO and Co-Founder of Tappi, an end-to-end SaaS for small businesses helping them to find more customers and keep the ones they already have. 

After graduating from MIT with a PhD in Design and Computation, Kenfield built Ajua, an enterprise SaaS platform solving the problem of first-party data that served some of the largest telcos, banks, and retail in Africa to drive operational efficiency, customer retention, and customer acquisition. Ken grew that business to serve brands such as MTN, Safaricom, Kenya Airways, Standard Chartered Bank and other large businesses, before starting Tappi to bring the same software sophistication to small businesses across Africa. 

Kenfield has degrees in Computer Science and Systems Engineering. Kenfield hails from a 5,000-person island called Montserrat, with ties to Barbados and Nigeria.

Paras Patel is the Founder and Managing Partner of E3 Capital. He has 15+ years of investment banking and asset management experience and is a serial entrepreneur with exits in Europe and Africa. Raised in Kenya, Paras has always had a strong desire to foster sustainable development across the African continent. 

As a founding member of Energy Access Ventures (EAV), Paras has played a pivotal role in constructing the fund’s thesis around investing in smart infrastructure solutions for Sub-Saharan Africa. Paras led EAV’s investment into several innovative verticals, including commercial and industrial solar, wireless ISPs and digital LPG solutions, as well as into d.light, which became EAV’s first exit in 2020.

Paras currently sits on the boards of CAVEX, Badili, Solarise Energy, Mawingu Networks and SolarX where he leverages his entrepreneurial savvy, structure thinking and strategic mindset to drive sustainable growth.

Vladimir is a Senior Partner at E3 Capital. He has 17+ years of experience in investment banking and private equity in emerging markets. Vladimir is passionate about driving disruptive innovation across the emerging world and effecting positive impact across industries and economies. After spending a few months in East Africa in 2017, he decided to follow this passion and move to Nairobi to focus on low carbon investments across the African continent. He is a Board Member of Untapped Global, Solarise Africa, SolarX Africa and ZiZ Energie. Vladimir holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Joey Akan is the Founder of Afrobeats Intelligence, Entertainment Editor of News Central TV, and the West African Arts & Culture Commissioning Editor for The

Conversations Africa. He is a multi-award-winning journalist, writer, A&R and Media Consultant as a multi-award-winning writer and music journalist, he spent over 5 years as the Music Editor of Pulse Nigeria, where he led a team of creatives at the Pulse Entertainment Desk.

He’s written on a variety of topics for the music industry, including investigations into the music distribution business, Africa, its sounds, and the music culture.

Joey has also covered some of the continent’s biggest events, including the MTV Africa Music Awards, Red Bull Culture Clash, Headies, African Music Awards, and many others. 

Surayyah Ahmad is a General Partner at Aduna Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage, underserved founders in Africa. She is also a Founding Partner at TTLabs, an accelerator focusing on supporting founders from diverse backgrounds, particularly in Northern Nigeria and among female entrepreneurs, helping them validate their ideas and prepare for funding. 

Previously, Surayyah successfully exited an e-commerce and fulfilment service company in Nigeria and founded an AI company in the UK. Her professional experience includes a role as a Senior Product Manager in the UK. She is currently studying at the University of Oxford, with a focus on finance and impact investing. Her previous academic achievements include a degree in Business Management from the University of Hertfordshire and a second degree in Economics from the University of London, with academic direction from the London School of Economics.